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In Search Of Middle Paths: Buddhism, Fiction, And The Secular In Twentieth-Century South Asia, Crystal Baines

Doctoral Dissertations

This study analyzes the centrality of South Asian Buddhist heritages in the articulation of multiple iterations of “the secular” in post-independent Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan. As contradictory as such a proposition might seem, this project demonstrates that literature was a forum where the category and language of Buddhism were reoriented to fashion new ideas of “the secular” for modern South Asian polities. With this in mind, I turn to the quintessential genres of secularity in South Asia: the twentieth-century novel and short story. These genres reveal how the category of Buddhism, Buddhist ethics and literature were received and used …

Sex, Love, And Mindfulness: Examining The Longitudinal Effects Of Mindfulness On Young Adult Dating Relationship Outcomes, Alexander Malik Khaddouma

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study examined the role of mindfulness in the relational outcomes of dating couples in order to: 1) investigate whether previously documented associations between mindfulness and relationship satisfaction extend to behavioral indicators of relationship stability cross-sectionally and longitudinally, 2) determine whether the role of mindfulness in relational outcomes differs for male and female partners, and 3) examine how male and female partners’ levels of mindfulness contribute to their own and their partners’ relational outcomes in the context of their dyadic relationship. Fourhundred and sixty-eight participants and 168 of their current dating partners (n = 655) completed baseline measures …

Contemplative Practices And Learning: A Holistic Approach To Education In Bhutan, Yang Gyeltshen

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the comments, behavior, and products of young student monks, who are exposed to an integrated curriculum of contemplative practices and secular lessons, about whether and how they bring their social-emotional learning from the contemplative practices to bear when learning secular functional skills and knowledge. At the beginning of my self-study, I hypothesized that an integrated curriculum of secular learning combined with contemplative practices would result in deeper learning, based on the research and literature on the connection between affective and cognitive learning. My findings support and do not negate previous research that an integrated curriculum, integrating contemplative …

A Soulful Egg Can Break A Rock: A Case Study Of A South Korean Social Movement Leader's Rhetoric, Eunsook Sul

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation introduces and analyzes Ven. Hyemoon’s rhetoric emanating from his leadership of the civic group, the Committee for the Return of Korean Cultural Property in South Korea. On the surface, he seems focused on retrieving cultural artifacts, pillaged by the Japanese colonial invasion. His work, upon deeper analysis, emerges to be about regaining a Korean cultural and national identity that is historically grounded, civically engaged and morally reflective. This study is informed by multiple theories (i.e., framing, narrative, social semiotics, critical geography, rhetoric, and social movement) to examine aspects of a phenomenon in depth – involving nationalism, social movement, …

Toward Eco -Citizenship: A Praxis For Empowerment, Penelope S. Morrow

Doctoral Dissertations

My teaching practice and research is about holistic education which assumes that, at some fundamental level, everything is connected. Holistic education is a philosophy, a worldview, that challenges the fragmented, reductionist, mechanistic and nationalistic assumptions of mainstream culture and education. The ultimate goal is to transform the way people look at themselves and their relationships in/to the world from a fragmented to an integrative perspective. This emerging paradigm can also be called ecological, evolutionary, spiritual and global. There is a growing belief that such education is fundamentally spiritual, in its search for wholeness.

Western civilization has been dominated from its …

A Participatory Study Of The Self-Identity Of Kibei Nisei Men: A Sub Group Of Second Generation Japanese American Men, William T. Masuda

Doctoral Dissertations

At one time, the Kibei were perceived as "a minority within a minority" (Me Williams, 1944: 322) who were "distrusted in both America and Japan" (1944:321). But today, the Kibei are hardly distinguishable from the Nisei as they both enter the evening of their lives. Raised in both America and Japan, but strongly influenced in their formative years by Japanese cultural values and beliefs, they were often perceived differently by their own family, by the Japanese American community, and by the American community at large. The apparent marginality of this group, living on the fringes of or in the space …